British fencing performance manager Alex Newton said she was "disappointed" by
Keith Cook's decision to appeal the Team GB fencing selection, as the BOA
announced the final three athletes selected to the squad.

Jumping for joy: Natalia Sheppard (right) and Anna Bentley (left) have been selected to represent the Women’s teamPhoto: Eddie Mulholland

Ms Newton said: "I'm only disappointed because it's another distraction away from the celebration of the athetes who are going.

"If I thought that genuinely we'd selected the wrong men's foilists, I could perhaps understand it more. But I actually think that the athletes who have been selected are absolutely the right ones to go.

"Keith has said we haven't considered him but we absolutely have considered him.

"He was up against some athletes who have been putting in some incredible performances.

"Was he considered? Absolutely he was considered. Was he considered good enough? No, he wasn't."

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She added: "I believe the selection process absolutely followed the procedures."

Anna Bentley, Husayn Rosowsky and Sophie Troiano were named as the remaining three fencing athletes selected to Team GB for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The three were included in the ten-man squad so Team GB can compete in the men’s and women’s team foil competitions at the ExCel Arena.

The two reserve athletes are Martina Emanuel and Laurence Halsted.

The announcement came a day after Keith Cook appealed his omission from the Olympic team.

The Scottish fencer was told in correspondence from British Fencing officials that because of a technicality involving his paperwork — he did not provide contact details — the governing body did not believe he wanted to be considered for selection.

Cook, ranked 95 in the world and still in the British top six having battled against recent injury, believes proper procedure was not followed.

The initial selection caused controversy, with four athletes unsuccessfully appealing the selection citing issues including bias and alleged conflicts of interest.

Only two of the seven actually qualified – Richard Kruse and Polish-born Natalia Sheppard in the foil – while the other five were awarded host nation spots.

Sophie Williams and Louise Bond-Williams were selected for the women's sabre, despite Joanna Hutchison and Chrystall Nicoll both being ranked higher.

The ExCel in London Docklands will host a total of ten fencing events, six for individuals and four team competitions, contested in a knockout format across the three different weapons: epee, foil and sabre.

No British fencer has won an Olympic medal since 1964, when Bill Hoskyns added a silver in the epee to an earlier silver won in Rome, but Kruse reached the quarter-finals of the Olympic foil competition in Athens and has been in good form since the last Olympics in Beijing, winning World Cup silver in Seoul last year.

In April he scored an impressive win over world champion Andrea Cassara on his way to bronze at the Wakayama Grand Prix in Japan.

Selection policies across the 26 Olympic sports have been under great scrutiny following Aaron Cook’s exclusion from the British Olympic taekwondo team in favour of rival Lutalo Muhammad, despite Cook being ranked No 1 in the world.

The British Olympic Association intervened but stopped short of overruling the governing body.

Keith Cook said on Monday: "I saw all these things going on in the press with people lodging appeals and I am like 'how do they know they have not been selected? What have I missed here?'

"It was getting closer to the Olympics and I was thinking 'this is not right'.

"I emailed the performance manager and asked to be let known what was going on because I had not received any information. I got one back saying it was to do with not giving your email address and phone number – and I said 'you must be joking'."

British Fencing said in a statement: "British Fencing strongly denies any bias or inappropriate action in the non-selection of Keith Cook for a discretionary Home Nation place at the London 2012 Olympics.

"We have made what we think are the best decisions, both for 2012 and 2016. We have a good squad and it is time for everyone to get behind them and let's go forward."

The addition of the three final fencers brings the total number of athletes officially selected to compete for Team GB at London 2012 to 215 across eighteen sport disciplines: archery, athletics - marathon, badminton, boxing, canoe slalom, diving, fencing, hockey, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronised swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon and weightlifting.